I have weighed the negatives and positives. This is extra money that I would like to play with, to gain experience in trading shares.

Risk reward ratio is important. The higher the risk the more you can expect to gain or lose.
For example if you bought Mytravel at the moment you could easily gain or lose 25% + in one week! This company has a fine balance between people who think it is a takeover candidate and others who feel it is about to close its doors.
As a beginner the chances are very high that you will lose some money.
The stock market is a gamble on any share or index so if you want to be safe listen to Gausie!

Perhaps open a CMC account, commission free trading. Get your money management in order (never lose more than 2% of your pot etc.). Learn to trade off end of day prices (don't place orders in an open market). Don't use any margin. Use CMC's automated stops and limits, one cancels the other, if done facilities. Once you can consistently win (over a number of months/years), scale up your trades. You only need to use a small amount of your pot to find out if you can trade effectively and gain experience (just start with 500).

Don't try to make money, avoid losing it.

Fugitive, good points ..
D.

excellent advice.

WOuld mayflower be a good investment as it is dirt cheap and eventually will recover.

Also they will cut the divdend which will mean have a affect on share price

Any comments.

My risky investments.

British Energy
Cater Bernard
Telewest
Mayflower
Mytravel
Inter Alliance

You need to decide what type of trading you intend to do, because if it's the old fashioned type - where you buy a share (paying charges & stamp duty) and then sell at a later date - you need to have a different stratergy than if you are spreadbetting or using CFD's.

I don't know much about your choices - except Telewest. This is a share to short not go long! (i.e sell rather than buy!) Telewest will only survive if it joins up with NTL (another co in trouble). If this happens I would expect them to delist in the UK to become NASDAQ quoted, and any UK shareholder will lose all thier money. If Telewest does not merge with NTL it will go under and all their competitors will just help themselves for next to nothing. (Does anyone remember IONICA - they went bust and their competition took over thier customers & assets for either free, of next to nothing.)

cheers little woman very helpful.

Spreadbetting can you make good money or is it only little gainsa

There is no better way of learning about shares when you have your own money invested.

However my advice would be to keep your cash in the bank for now. Lot of volatility in the market at the moment. A lot of investors going for 'safer' shares.

When LSE stabilizes then go for it.

All IMO.

have a look at alltracel pharmaceuticals. web site www.alltracel.com. announcing final year results next week which should be excellent judging by their interim and quarterly announcements. their broker state that shares should rise to original list price of 68p in the medium term. also lots of new deals which looking very interesting. currently trading at around 30p. only my humble opinion but possibly worth a punt. stocks go up and down like wh***s knickers, who knows?

Why now ? Why not wait a couple of months so as to give yourself time to
gather more information?Meanwhile,you could have an imaginary portfolio.
rgds aj

Excellent advice AJ, but his performance may make him steer clear of market, and where would we make our gains if not from novices? IMH (but very greedy)O if you have 5000 to play with, perhaps you could just sign me a cheque payable to CASH!. Good hunting.

I'd put half on ZI Medical (ZIM) results due 5th April & half on CMS Webview (CWV) results due soon (April/May) (IMHO & DYOR)

Ok so am I being silly investing so much.

What are the fundamentals of trading and how do I become a day trader what do i look out for.

should i try spreadbetting

Do paper trading and think of it as "real Money".This way you will know whether your strategies are going right or not.
Aslo identify yourself as what type of trader u want to be.Day,week,mixture.Aslo the risk/money management has to be right.
Before u place a trade u should have worked out your max loss that u are willing to take etc.
Day trading "full time" -DONT GIVE up your JOB as its difficult.
s/betting recent article in sunday times said that approx. 90 odd % lost!!!!

rgds
zarif

thesaurus,

Watch, read, listen, ask questions, paper trade.
Check with Croc for any seminars in your area.

When you get it right paper trading, you'll find that
you have to learn it all again as you will then be fighting
your own psychological profile when you trade with real money.
This will be a totally different experience, believe me.

Melnibone.

what effects a share price.

Thesaurus:
In a nut shell: "if you dont learn the importance of Support and resistance than u dont know the markets at all"
markets are driven by sentiment etc etc.
Fear and greed are the biggest factors that play on emotions.
Cut your losses quick -the best way to survive.
Paper trading will help -BUT remember as soon as You put REAL money the RULES of the game change (as melnibone said)!!!.
IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN THAN YOU PLAN TO FAIL!!!

i hope this helps.
Get some knowledge -attend a few courses eg: crocs and attend any traders meetings in your area.

rgds
zarif

what are crocs?

Sorry Crocs the nick Name of David who does the traders thread and you can also go to his site at:
www.snappytrader.com
you will find a lot of info there including free educational material on tech analysis etc etc. The place is atraders goldmine.try it

rgds
zarif